LANDSCAPE FORESTRY 239 



The Ash. 



The ash is generally considered to be one of the most 

 beautiful of trees, and it owes its reputation more to its 

 lightness and elegance when standing singly and unconfined, 

 than when crowded up in a thick wood. When young, and 

 consisting practically of a single stem, the ash is not par- 

 ticularly ornamental; but as the side branches gradually 

 develop and clothe the stem with light feathery foliage, or 

 with spray which gradually acquires a drooping habit, the 

 ash fully deserves all that can be said in praise of it. In a 

 crowded wood the branches are entirely confined to the top 

 of the tree, and therefore its most ornamental character 

 cannot be seen under such conditions. To obtain picturesque 

 trees, space is necessary after the first twenty or thirty years, 

 and the best specimens are invariably found in the open, or 

 on the margins of plantations or groups. Few situations 

 suit this tree better than the sides of ravines, or the banks 

 of streams, where at least one side of the tree has unlimited 

 space, and the stem and branches can acquire those graceful 

 curves which are seen to perfection in few other species, and 

 give it a totally different character to that possessed by an 

 oak or beech. These lines of beauty are well described by 

 Gilpin, who writes of this tree : " But its chief beauty consists 

 in the lightness of its whole appearance. Its branches at 

 first keep close to the trunk, and form acute angles with it ; 

 but as they begin to lengthen they generally take an easy 

 sweep, and, the looseness of the leaves corresponding with 

 the lightness of the spray, the whole forms an elegant 

 depending foliage. Nothing can have a better effect than 

 an old ash leaning from the corner of a wood, and bringing 

 off the heaviness of the other foliage with its loose pendant 

 branches." 



A more modern writer, and one who did not make trees 

 such a speciality as Gilpin did, thus refers to the ash in 

 woodland scenery : " If you put mercury into a solution 

 of nitrate of silver, and leave them for a few days to 

 combine, the result will be a precipitation of silver in a 

 lovely arborescent form, the arbor Diance, beautiful beyond 



